TST 5/30/23 - Bit Con: Cashless by Coin

No-one is excited to give you money or wipe out your debt, with exception to your grandma or very nice parents. Why do we think otherwise? Since 2009 one of the biggest supporters of crypto-currencies were big banks like JP Morgan, one of the first to provide access to Bitcoin and other similar funds. In 2021, JPM launched the Cryptocurrency Exposure Basket, a debt instrument that gave exposure to cryptocurrency through 11 Bitcoin proxy stocks. As of the same year 43.2% of smartphone owners used mobile payments, a number excepted to grow to 50% by 2025. The biggest reason? Cash was dirty and less convenient during a time of national health concern, which resulted in a 29% increase in digital money usage. Before anything even happened though, Forbes published a March 23, 2020, article detailing how the House Financial Series Committee wanted to create a “digital dollar” to be defined as “a balanced expressed as a dollar value consisting of digital ledger entries.” They also desired to create a “digital dollar wallet” to be held by the Federal Reserve and linked to “a digital or physical identity.” The Federal Reserve would go further in employing the Postal Service to get unbanked persons registered. Most of this, including giving the IRS direct access to your bank account, had to do with receiving stimulus checks. On November 21, 2022, it was unveiled that JP Morgan had patented a “J.P. Morgan Wallet” with the USPTO. These wallets were also made trendy with Apple’s digital-first credit card and Venmo, among others. Despite Crypto-currency and Central Bank Digital Currency being classified as two separate things, they are in fact very similar if not identical. CBDC itself officially stems from crypto-currencies and blockchain technology. BDCs are officially distributed through blockchain technology too. And what is a blockchain? It is a distributed database or ledger, just like the one proposed by the HFSC. But CBDC is centralized and Crypto-currency is not, right? Well, decentralized does not mean it is safe, secure, or the best choice. In fact, the ledger is open for view. It is arguably less secure than any digital system in use - traditional banks. Crypto-currency also ‘inspired’ CBDC, or was likely a bait and switch orchestrated by big banks. Either way, both digital currencies are still reduced to their cash (dollar) value. Crypto itself comes from the Greek Kruptos, meaning hidden, and what is hidden beneath CRYPTO is CBDC. In other words, Crypto is the financial equivalent of a certain letter of the alphabet. It is a bit of a con and through the coin we are being forced to go cashless, perhaps even demanding it.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tst-radio--5328407/support.